At 11:10pm last night, the Islanders announced they had signed forward Matt Martin to a 4-year deal with only minutes to spare before the CBA expired at midnight.

As the summer wore on, Martin — the only significant RFA the Islanders had this year — was curiously un-signed as many players tried to sign deals prior to the impending lockout. There should never have been much worry, the Islanders would have retained Martin’s rights no matter what (similar to the RFAs that went to Europe earlier in the summer) as they offered him a qualifying offer at the end of June. The debate was likely the number of dollar bills and with not a ton of leverage, the only leverage he really had was to wait. If the season went off on time, maybe that would have tilted things in Martin’s favor a little bit. With a lockout coming along with a world of uncertainty, Martin agreed to a 4-year deal worth $4 million, according to Katie Strang.